


Continuing Surprise

by helsinkibaby



Category: Sleepy Hollow (TV)
Genre: Community: comment_fic, F/M, Friendship, Gen, Het, Unplanned Pregnancy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-01-18
Packaged: 2018-05-14 20:22:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5757025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ichabod learns some surprising news about Jenny.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Continuing Surprise

**Author's Note:**

> Theme : birth  
> Prompt : any, any het pairing, revealing they're dating and also expecting

When he sees Miss Jenny's skin turn an ashy shade of grey, when he sees her sway alarmingly on her feet, Ichabod is across the archives in a second, holding onto her elbow tightly. One of her hands grips his arm with equal intensity, the other holding onto the solid wood of the table beside them and he doesn't release his hold on her until she nods at him. 

"Are you quite well, Miss Jenny?" he asks, unable to keep the worry from his voice. "Perhaps I should summon the doctor..."

How he'd explain their location to a physician escapes him momentarily and in that moment, Miss Jenny shakes her head. "I'm fine, Crane." 

To Ichabod's ears, she sounds anything but, her voice shakier than ever he's heard it. "Are you certain?"

A flash of irritation crosses her features and he's on firmer ground suddenly. "Yes."

"But if you are unwell..."

"I'm not sick, Crane." She bites the words out, then bites her lip. He knows that look; it's the one the Lieutenant sometimes gets when she's about to say something and she's not sure how it will be taken. He waits patiently, if curiously, and after a moment she says, so soft he can scarcely hear her, "I'm pregnant."

Ichabod blinks, then blinks again. "Pregnant?" he echoes and just like that, the irritation comes back full force. 

"You know, knocked up, a bun in the oven, with child?" Her eyes narrow. "And I swear, if you say the words 'fallen woman' to me..."

"Miss Jenny!" He's scandalised, although probably not for the reason she thinks. He stands up straight, pulls his shoulders back and looks down his nose at her as he takes a deep breath. "I'll thank you to recall that, different as the moralities of our respective centuries may be, I have been acquainted with you, and your character, for long enough to know that I would never ascribe to you such a status." He sniffs. "I'm rather affronted that you would think such a thing."

Miss Jenny looks down, scuffs her toe against the tiles. She doesn't apologise though, instead simply glancing up with the tiniest of smiles and saying, "Thank you."

He inclines his head in response. "I must confess," he admits, "that my surprise stems primarily from the fact that I had no idea you are courting." He blinks then, something having occurred to him suddenly. "Unless of course you are not... in which case I make no judgment about your choices..."

"Relax, Crane." Miss Jenny's lips are twisted somewhere between a smile and a grimace. "I am courting..." She giggles, a most uncommon sound. "There's a sentence I never thought I'd say..."

"I see." Ichabod joins his hands behind his back, a surge of protectiveness coming over him.  Miss Jenny is the closest thing he has to a sister and with her own father being absent for most of her life, he supposes it might fall to him to play some kind of sibling role in the predicament in which she finds herself. "And might I ask if I am acquainted with the..." He stumbles over the best word. "Gentleman in question?" 

If she notices the pause, she doesn't comment on it. "It's Frank," she tells him. He blinks yet again, cocks his head to one side and she may take that as a lack of understanding because she adds, "Captain Irving." He nods, opens his mouth in an "ah" of acceptance because, surprising as this whole conversation may be, that detail is the one that makes the most sense. 

"Marvellous," he says, clapping his hands together. "I must extend to him my congratulations..."

"No!" Miss Jenny suddenly looks panicked again. "He doesn't know. Abbie doesn't know. I haven't..." She sighs, presses her lips together. "I haven't told anyone yet." 

There's a slump to her shoulders, a drop to her head that makes no sense to Ichabod. "I assume that, like myself, the Lieutenant knows not of your relationship?" He doesn't need the nod she gives him. "As for the Captain... I must confess that I have, on several occasions, seen him looking most admiringly in your direction." He'd thought it was another example of twenty first century openness; apparently there was more to it. "I'm sure he will be delighted to learn of your condition."

Miss Jenny's lips twist again. This time, however, it's assuredly more grimace than smile. "Will he?" Ichabod can't help himself, his jaw drops. "This... was not planned. I can't begin to tell you how not planned this was." Miss Jenny begins to pace, hands moving through the air as she speaks. "We've never talked about it. Not once. And Macey's almost fourteen now... He's done the diaper changing and sleepless nights. Maybe he doesn't want to do it again." Her eyes are dark and troubled when she looks at him, and her whole expression is almost beseeching him to put her mind at rest. 

Which, fortunately, he's able to do.  

"Miss Jenny." He approaches her carefully - his excursions into current television programmes have made him aware of such things as pregnancy hormones, and when one is as skilled with her fists as Miss Jenny, it's best to take precautions. Standing in front of her, he places both hands on her shoulders and takes the fact that she doesn't shove them off as a good sign. "Were you involved with some cad, I could understand your apprehension. But Captain Irving is an honourable man." She opens her mouth as if to speak; he doesn't let her. "An honourable man who, as I intimated earlier, is more than fond of you. Furthermore, having seen the way he looks at Miss Macey... the lengths to which he would go to protect her... I cannot see any circumstances where he would do less with a child of your union." He squeezes her shoulders, surprised to see that her eyes have taken on a slightly glassy quality. "I believe you have nothing  to worry about."

Much to his continuing surprise, the very usually not tactile Miss Jenny suddenly puts her arms around his waist, pulling him into a hug. "Thank you," she murmurs against his chest and he smiles as he hugs her back. 

"The pleasure, Miss Jenny, is all mine."


End file.
